In August 2025, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali removed all taxes and customs duties on feminine hygiene products. Now, Guyana’s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva calls on other countries to follow suit.    In most developing countries male condoms are distributed freely. Free access to condoms is a globally recognized harm reduction strategy in public health.  […] Continue reading ->
Technological advances in Artificial Intelligence applications for healthcare are quickly outpacing regulatory and ethical safeguards, creating a dangerous gap in patient safety, warns a milestone report on AI in Health Systems, published Wednesday by the World Health Organization’s European Region (WHO/EURO).  Paradoxically, the WHO’s urgent call for tighter AI regulation coincided with a far-reaching European […] Continue reading ->
The United States government is moving rapidly to secure Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with African countries that offer limited health aid for five years in exchange for 25 years’ access to countries’ data about “pathogens with epidemic potential”. Some commentators have described the terms of the bilateral MOUs as “extractive” as they fail to offer […] Continue reading ->
Season 5 of the Global Health Matters podcast opens with a blunt diagnosis of the field’s future from two leading voices, and a roadmap for reform. In a conversation with host Garry Aslanyan, Paola Abril Campos Rivera of Tecnológico de Monterrey and Catherine Kyobutungi, head of Kenya’s African Population and Health Research Centre, argue that […] Continue reading ->
Armenia’s first deputy health minister, Lena Nanushyan, says the country’s tougher tobacco controls, and a coming universal health insurance reform, are designed to reinforce each other by cutting disease and protecting households from catastrophic medical bills. “Public health and universal health coverage are inseparable,” Nanushyan told Garry Aslanyan in an interview for his Trailblazers series […] Continue reading ->